Romney’s Tax plan gives nearly 60 percent of its benefit to the richest 1 percent of Americans, while preserving the loopholes that let the wealthy pay less than middle class families. Families making $40,000 or less a year will also see a slight tax increase.
Bush tax cuts for households making over $1,000,000 resulted in $141,312 per year. Romney’s plan calls for $286,880. More than double.
His plan would add an additional $600 billion to the federal deficit each year.
This information comes from a study released by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center in Washington.
I think we all have a common goal of reducing our national deficit. But we are being fed a lie by Mr. Romney and the right spin machine as to where these deficit have come from. Our inflated national deficit has come largely from 3 sources.
1) Bush-era tax cuts
2) war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan
3) The current Recession
Please review the following chart. It comes from data from the Congressional Budget Office and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Both are non-partisan organizations.
I do not care which party you lean towards. I do care about fiscal responsibility.
1) Bush cut taxes but did not cut government spending. Any fool that understands math knows this led to a deficit.
2) Post 9/11 Defense spending has more than doubled, yet taxes were lowered.
3) We currently have 8.5% unemployment. In other words, the government is not taking in tax revenues from 3.5% to 4% of the population (unemployment typically runs at 4% to 5%).
I also do not think you need to be an economist to understand these issues. Imagine you were making $3000 a month and your expenses were $3000 a month. Now imagine you had to get another job but it only pays you $2500 a month. If you do not adjust your budget to reflect your new income you would be upside down $500 a month. You could throw it on the credit card and continue to spend more than you make. Every one of you reading this gets this concept, even those of you that live beyond your means! Well, this is exactly what the government is doing and has been doing since Clinton left office.
Take a look again at the chart above. You should now understand the nature of 6.5 trillion dollars of our 14 trillion dollar deficit comes from.
Now on to Romney.
His solution is to double the Bush tax cuts with the majority going to the top 1%, adding another $600 billion to our deficit. He also proclaimed after his win in the New Hampshire primary that he will increase and strengthen our military. Simple question. How does he plan to pay for this? Cutting taxes and increasing military spending. How is this being fiscally responsible? Sound a lot like the fiscal policies of the Bush administration to me.
Bain capital is what are referred to as “corporate raiders.” They go in and do leveraged buyouts for cash and asset rich companies and extract capital from them for their shareholders. Over 20% of these companies Bain bought ended up going through bankruptcy. Remember Kaybee toys. A successful old toy store. Bain bought them, added massive debt to their balance sheet and ended up driving them into bankruptcy. Bain walked away from that aquisition with 120 million dollars in profit, putting a 70 year old viable toy company into bankruptcy.
His tax plan does not seem much different than the business model at Bain.
Throwing Newt Under the Bus
Romney is running on the platform that he has business experience and is a job creator. Newt Gingrich has asked him to defend these business practices. Newt is being thrown under the bus by the entire Republican machine. He is being branded as a communist, anti-business, anti-capitalism.
Newt is right in asking these questions of Mitt. Over the next year you are going to hear many stories about Bain captial. How they bought companies and shut down factories and sent jobs overseas.
Asking these questions in not being anti-business or anti-capitalism.
If you want to believe in a system of free market capitalism that closes our factories and ships our jobs overseas then that is your choice.
If you want to believe in a system of free market capitalism that allows the largest companies tax advantages that allow them to pay less than their smaller competetion so that we end up with less mom and pop stores and more big chains like Walmart and Best Buy and Target and Old Navy. Stores where most of the employees are part-time, paid minimum wage, and not offered benefits like health insurance. Chains where you can buy goods made in third world countries for less than can buy the raw materials and make them yourself then that is your choice.
If you want a free market system that is allowed to operate without some form of government regulation in the face of the worst economic collapse just three years ago then that is your choice.
If you want a free market system that does not allow employees to organize and bargain for their wages and benefits collectively then that is your choice.
I do not understand your choice but it is your choice.
My choice on the other hand is a system of capitalism that is more like the capitalism people like Warren Buffet practice. Buy companies with strong balance sheets and long term outlook and grow them for the long haul.
I am for a system of capitalism where our government looks to incent businesses to create jobs in America through tax policy that favors creating jobs in America.
I am for a system of capitalism that is focussed on creating money and wealth through investment banks that leads to creating jobs and invests in our future.
I am for a system of capitalism that considers our finite resources and is more focused on the Buffet model of long term growth than about how do in the current quarter.
I am for a system of capitalism that is outlined in the Obama commission that was headed by Jeff Immelt and many of our current business leaders.
If after seeing all of these facts you are still going to vote Republican no matter the cost to you then that is your choice. Frankly, I do not feel I have a choice any longer. I am not real thrilled with the Democratic party. But when I look to the right and see what they have done and what they will do if they get back into the majority I am flat out frightened for all of us.
I agree with Ron Paul that if we keep selecting the status quo the day of reckoning gets that much closer. I agree with many of his libertarian ideas, and disagree with just as many. I agree with many Democratic ideas, and disagree with just as many. I cannot name a single Republican idea in the new Tea Party driven neocon world that I agree with. Sadly, this has not always been the case.
